And if the Delta Plus variant is as difficult as it appears it might be, or if the virus evolves into something even more deadly, then there should be an international unbiased effort to assign responsibility.
The US might have some for funding some small percentage of the gain of function stuff after it became known that the Chinese were using BLS 2 and BLS 3 facilities for dealing with novel corona viruses engineered via humanized mice to attack human respiratory function.
But, really, how stupid is it to use BLS 2 and BLS 3 facilities to deal with these kinds of viruses? It is beyond stupid, it borders on the insane. China clearly has the most responsibility.
This paragraph from Wade's article summarized things nicely:
It’s documented that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were doing gain-of-function experiments designed to make coronaviruses infect human cells and humanized mice. This is exactly the kind of experiment from which a SARS2-like virus could have emerged. The researchers were not vaccinated against the viruses under study, and they were working in the minimal safety conditions of a BSL2 laboratory. So escape of a virus would not be at all surprising. In all of China, the pandemic broke out on the doorstep of the Wuhan institute. The virus was already well adapted to humans, as expected for a virus grown in humanized mice. It possessed an unusual enhancement, a furin cleavage site, which is not possessed by any other known SARS-related beta-coronavirus, and this site included a double arginine codon also unknown among beta-coronaviruses. What more evidence could you want, aside from the presently unobtainable lab records documenting SARS2’s creation?
In my view, the onus is on China to 'fess up (it won't, tyrants and repressive elites don't do mea culpas very well). lf China were to change course, admit fault (which is obvious), and assign resources for reparations, especially to the smaller, poorer countries that have been devastated by this plague, it would gain more prestige than it could imagine.
Don't hold your breath.
Better yet, do hold your breath. |
